The Hindu : Business : Hero Motors plans slew of vehicles

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 16, 2004

Business

Business

Hero Motors plans slew of vehicles

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, APRIL 15. Hero Motors will announce on April 22 a deal to supply two wheeler engines to `a large European engine maker,' senior company executives told reporters here today. The company would build 100-200 cc engines for the European customer.

Pankaj Munjal, Managing Director, and Sanjay Bharadwaj, senior vice president (marketing and sales), were here to promote the company's new 92 cc 4-stroke geared motorcycle, Hero Sting. Mr. Bharadwaj said, Sting had been launched a month ago in Uttar Pradesh and Rajastan and some 500 units had been sold. The bike was being promoted as a family vehicle that was safe and easy to handle. About 9 per cent of the initial buyers were women, he said.

This year, the company would release three scooters built with technology from Aprilia S.p.A. The scooters would be branded Hero Aprilia and customised for the Indian market, Mr. Munjal said. Two versions, named Sonic, would be released in November, with 75 cc (costing Rs. 26,000) and 92 cc (Rs. 31,000) engines.

The third, a non-geared scooter called SR, would have a 125 cc liquid cooled engine. It would be released in July 2005, he said. A fourth scooter, to be `benchmarked against the Honda Activa' would be out by the end of 2005, Mr. Bharadwaj said. The company had also bought land at Manesar in Gurgaon, where a new manufacturing plant would be built in a year, he said.

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